Source: Atos Origin
Atos Origin, a leading IT services company, today announced that NFU Mutual has selected Atos Origin as its IT services partner under a contract valid for 10 years.
The contract is worth €130 million and covers the outsourcing of all data centres and desktops to Atos Origin.
William Schouten, NFU Mutual Corporate Services Director, said: "Outsourcing these parts of the company's IT operations will bring greater flexibility and deliver cost savings whilst providing service levels to meet changing business needs. The choice of Atos Origin was made not only because of its ability to provide the required expertise and levels of service, but also its close fit with our culture and its commitment to the welfare and development of employees. We have worked hard to consult staff directly and via our staff forum, as well as the union, Amicus, in every step of the negotiations and look forward to developing our business with the help of Atos Origin in coming years."
The contract was awarded after a comprehensive twelve month competitive procurement process, supported by external industry specialists from Approach Consultancy, led by Nilesh Bhandari, which involved ten of the top IT services providers operating in the UK. Objectives, milestones and timelines were clearly communicated to all parties and the transfer process was completed on schedule on December 1st with the transfer of 78 NFU Mutual employees to Atos Origin, who have all chosen to accept Atos Origin's terms and conditions of employment.
"This is a very significant win for Atos Origin and demonstrates that we have both the capability and expertise to deliver big deals in the financial services sector," said Derek Ward, executive vice president for UK markets, Atos Origin. "This year our financial services business has grown significantly through the increased collaboration between our consulting, systems integration and managed operations teams. We are looking forward to working with NFU Mutual to ensure that their IT systems enable them to work more effectively and efficiently."
Separately, Atos Origin announced today that Philippe Germond joins the company and becomes Member of the Management Board.
Philippe will have operational responsibility for Asia Pacific and North America, for Global Sales, Markets and Accounts, and for Atos Origin's specialised business Atos Worldline. Philippe will also be responsible for Atos Origin's Transformation Program.
Bernard Bourigeaud, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board welcomes this new addition to Atos Origin's top management team: "Atos Origin is currently reviewing its way of operating, in order to further improve its organic growth capabilities, its operational efficiency, and its ability to operate as a global company. I have known Philippe for many years and he brings us his experience of both industrial and services organisations in the technology sector. I am very glad he accepted to join Atos Origin and I am sure he will significantly strengthen our move towards more global operations, and contribute to reinforce our important role in the European IT Services space"
Philippe Germond, previously member of the Supervisory Board of Atos Origin and who has held Senior Executive positions at Hewlett Packard, SFR-Cegetel and Alcatel, says: "I am very happy to join the Management Team of such a dynamic and successful corporation. As member of the Supervisory Board for the last 3 years, I have been able to gauge the future development potential of Atos Origin, and I'm very eager to take on the challenges and responsibilities that Bernard Bourigeaud has proposed"
Philippe Germond, 49 years old, was formerly President and Chief Operating Officer of Alcatel, and member of the Executive Committee. Earlier, he was Chairman and CEO of Groupe Cegetel, SFR, Vivendi Universal Net, Vivendi Telecom International, and member of the Executive Committee of Vivendi Universal. He joined SFR in 1995 as CEO. From 1980 to 1995, he held various positions within Hewlett Packard in the USA, France and Europe, up to becoming Managing Director of HP Europe South and Member of the Executive Committee HP Europe. Philippe Germond is a a graduate of the Ecole Centrale de Paris, and he holds a Master of Science in Management from the Stanford University. He is a board member of Essilor, Ecole Centrale de Paris, Qosmos.